James D. Jarman
Ocean City hotelkeeper and fishing correspondent · active 1931
An Ocean City, Maryland man who wrote weekly fishing reports to Perry Miller's 'Rod and Stream' column in the Washington Evening Star through the summer of 1931, having heard the column broadcast. His letters name the mayor's catches, give the weights of individual channel bass and describe kingfish taken 'right in front of our hotel' — which places him in the hotel trade, though his house is not named. — 1946 FULL PASS, 2026-08-15: HE ADVERTISED THE NEW RIDEAU THROUGH THE 1946 SEASON in the Washington Evening Star as 'Ocean City's Boardwalk Hotel' - 'Private baths; telephone in rooms. Home-like meals' - over the line 'Phone 72, J. D. JARMAN', the telephone number appearing as 72, 73 and 78 in successive insertions between May and August 1946. ⚠ A SEPARATE AND UNRESOLVED QUESTION: a 'James Jarman' asked the Ocean City council on 14 May 1946 whether any change had been made in licensing for umbrellas and was told there was none, and a 'James N. Jarman' complained on 2 July that the town was issuing licences for renting to others, and was told the council issued no franchise to anyone and would licence anyone willing to pay. Whether the hotelkeeper and the beach concessionaire are one man is NOT established - the middle initials do not agree - and no merge is made.
In the record (9)
1931 · 1931-06-23
"Almost everybody in this city, including Mayor William McCabe, the chief of police and members of the town council, are fishing today."
Washington Times, 23 June 1931, datelined Ocean City: "ANGLERS FLOCK TO BAY CITY... And predictions are that if today's catch is as large as those of the past 10 days all inhabitants and visitors will be out with the hook and line tomorrow... Channel bass are biting better here than ever before in history, while blue fish, king fish and trout fairly fight each other to get on the hook. Mayor McCabe basked today under his laurels as the city's champion fisherman. During the past 10 days he has hooked 18 channel bass, all whoppers... The bass weigh between 25 and 50 pounds." The Evening Star's "Rod and Stream" column ran Ocean City reports all summer: on 21 June from JAMES D. JARMAN of Ocean City, Md. ("Dr. Berman went out last night and in about an hour caught 12 kingfish right in front of our hotel"); on 26 June, "The mayor, the town council, its secretary, the chief of police, most of the proprietors of the hotels and their guests are reported to be engaged in fishing"; and on 19 June a telegram "from Ocean City, Md., from the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE" — "Parties of 15 catching at rate of 30 a day."
Two years before the inlet, the fishery that made the town's modern reputation is already the thing Washington is told about — and the town is organised enough to wire the fishing report to a metropolitan daily under the Chamber of Commerce's name. It is also, incidentally, the only glimpse 1931 gives of Ocean City's government: a mayor, a council, a council secretary and a police chief, none of them named except McCabe, all of them out after channel bass.
Ocean City Chamber of CommerceWilliam W. McCabe
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1938 · 1938-05-10
Ocean City's new assessments for 1938 ran from $400 for a house on an alley to $25,000 for John Lambros's building at South and Atlantic
On 10 May 1938 the council ordered notices of new assessment sent to twenty-six owners for the 1938 levy, and the clerk wrote the list into the book. The largest were John Lambros, $25,000, for a building at South and Atlantic Avenue; Harry and Ethel Kelly, $11,000, for an addition to the Royalton; C. H. and Mary F. Benson, $11,000, for an apartment on Ninth Street; Bay Heights Development Co., $10,000; and C. Parker Smith, $10,000 for an apartment and its furniture. In the middle: Mrs. J. Ada Beardsworth's bungalow on Tenth at $5,000, John A. Price's apartment at $5,000, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Johnson's house on Sixth at $7,500, Curtis W. Long at $4,500, Carroll H. and Marion Mumford at $3,600, three Baltimore Avenue houses in the Dennis and Carroll families at $3,000 to $3,500, Chas. Arthur Holloway at $2,800, Capt. Elisha V. Bunting's bungalow at $1,000. The smallest was Sam and Della Ayres, $400, 'House on alley'. A second and shorter list followed on 21 June, and five assessments were 'marked off' - R. R. Dennis $2,000 of personal stock, Davis & Lynch $1,000, Howard Truitt $1,000, J. D. Jarman $900 personal, and the R. C. Quillen estate.
John LambrosEthel KelleyElisha Victor BuntingC. Parker Smith
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1939 · 1939-09-19
Ocean City's council voted $250 for a radio broadcast in September 1939 and the mayor vetoed it
The minute of 19 September 1939: 'C. P. Cropper offered Resolution, seconded by R. Bounds that City pay Broadcasting Station the Sum of $250.00 on program that was sent from Ocean City. Vote was taken and passed by Council, then Vetoed by Mayor Johnson.' The same meeting refused James D. Jarman's bill for salary as the town's fishing press agent while paying his $87.36 of expenses, and settled a boardwalk injury claim by Mrs. V. E. Landon - who had fallen on 24 August - by offering her $25; she held out and was paid $50 on 24 October.
Three months later Johnson resigned. This is the only recorded veto of his mayoralty in 1939 and it was aimed at the one line of the budget the council never stopped feeding - advertising, which had already taken $250 for an outdoor show in January, $500 at Annapolis in March, $600 for the Chamber of Commerce office in May and would take $300 for a show in New York in December.
Edmond H. JohnsonClifford P. CropperE. Raymond BoundsCapt. Crawford Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1941 · 1941-04-21
A midget golf course was licensed for Philadelphia Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets in April 1941 — licence not to exceed twenty-five dollars.
'Nick Rubel made application for Midget Golf Course Phila Ave between 6 & 7th St. License not to exceed 25.00.' One line in the longhand minute of 21 April 1941, and the earliest municipal record the campaign holds of the game that would become one of Ocean City's signature industries — the town now carries a dozen mini-golf courses and the category is one of the fourteen the modern registry recognises. The same meeting approved building permits for Mr. English on lot 2 block 46, Wm. Clark on 2nd Street next to the bay, and Minnie Vincent on 8th Street, and passed a resolution to have James Jarman's small building on the Boardwalk between 7th Street and Surf Avenue removed after Parker Smith objected to it.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1941 · 1941-05-06
Four men bid to haul Ocean City's garbage in 1941 and the clerk wrote down every price: Raymond Massey took it at $30 a day in summer and $12 in winter.
The minute of Tuesday 6 May 1941 sets out the whole tender. 'Bids were opened on hauling garbage and Contract awarded to Raymond Massey for $30.00 day for summer & $12 daily winter hauling. Bids were as follows: James Trimble 35.00 day summer, 13.50 winter; Raymond Massey 30, 12.00; Vincent Lewis 31.95, 11.25; Ted Jones 40.00, 18.00.' The secretary was instructed to prepare the contract and have Massey sign it. Vincent Lewis had in fact bid lower for the winter work and higher for the summer; the town bought on the summer figure, which is where the volume was. Three years earlier E. Raymond Bounds had bid $26.50 a day for the same summer work and lost it by a dollar fifty — and was now sitting on the council that opened the envelopes. The same evening James Jarman and Bert Cropper asked for a reduction in the bicycle licence, and Salisbury wrote asking Ocean City to take part in the Strawberry Festival and appoint a Princess.
Raymond MasseyE. Raymond BoundsHarold J. RayneClifford P. CropperG. Bertrand Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1941 · 1941-06-03
A delegation of Boardwalk businessmen got the council to license umbrella hire at five dollars from a fixed place of business — and to refuse it altogether to anyone with a cart.
On the evening of 3 June 1941, with the season about to open, a 'Delegation headed by James Jarman and Dr Chas. Purnell' came before the Ocean City council 'asking that council grant no lisence to any one to rent umbrellas from push cart on the board walk and agreement was reached that council lisence each place renting umbrellas from their business places lisence for $5.00 and refuse any traveling push cart.' It is a small ordinance and a complete picture of how the Boardwalk economy defended itself: the men with premises pay five dollars and keep the trade; the man with a cart and no rent is legislated off the boards. The same meeting patched the holes in Caroline Street for John Hagan and fixed the lifeguards' wages.
Ocean City BoardwalkDr. Charles Washington PurnellClifford P. Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1943 · 1943-02-10
In February 1943 a citizen asked the council to help get the Government to make Ocean City a training center for the WACs — the resort trying to be requisitioned rather than waiting to be.
Clifford P. CropperJ. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-02-14
About seventy people came to Ocean City's bus terminal hearing on 14 February 1945: the property owners within 250 feet voted 14 to 4 for it, and the room voted 26 to 14 against.
The council recessed to the firemen's room to hold a hearing on the Red Star application for a terminal on the site of the North Garage, of which every property owner within 250 feet had been notified. About 70 people were present. Mayor Trimper explained the object of the meeting and the President of Council, John B. Lynch, presided. A vote of the property owners within 250 feet was taken and there were 14 for and 4 against, with 8 not present and one who wanted to see plans. Frank Sacca, Lewis Hardcastle, Dr. Guy Dennis and Mrs. Harriet Cropper spoke against the terminal, and Sacca insisted a vote be taken of the people present: 14 voted for and 26 opposed. Two rival applications were read at the same sitting - James D. Jarman's to build on a lot in rear of the Rideau Hotel, and one from the Union Buss Station Co., signed by Frank Sacca, on the old railroad station lot, 120 by 250 feet. Nine days later the council granted the Red Star permit anyway.
Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.John B. LynchDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Frank Sacca
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1946 · 1946-07-02
A beach concessionaire complained to the Ocean City council in July 1946 that it was licensing his competitors, and was told flatly that the town granted no franchises to anyone.
'James N. Jarman before Council complaining of the issuance of licenses for renting to others, and Council explained they were issuing no franchise to anyone and were giving license to anyone else who was willing to pay for same.' Jarman had been before the council on 14 May wanting to know whether any change had been made in licensing for umbrellas and was told there was none. The council's answer is its own position stated in terms, and it is worth setting against the same body's habits in the years on either side: it had granted an exclusive four-year bus permit in January 1945, a rolling-chair concession, and a one-year bus licence in March 1946. On the beach itself, in the first postwar season, it would sell a licence to anyone who paid.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-15